in the heart of New York City. A recent video—which
describes Whole Foods’ exclusive Mineral Fusion
makeup—looks like it could have been shot in an Ulta or
Sephora store.

There’s more: In February 2018, nutritionists from
Beaumont Health, Michigan’s largest healthcare system,
launched a series of free health tours at the Meijer store
in Royal Oak, Mich.—each focused on a specific area of
nutrition.

And Albertsons’ headline-generating news in Febru-ary 2018 sums up the evolving state of today’s grocerymarketplace: “Albertsons Cos. and Rite Aid Mergeto Create Food, Health and Wellness Leader.”As company officials explained, the combi-nation of the two retailers aims to provide cus-tomers with flexible and convenient access toa full range of food, health and wellness offer-ings. “We have always put our customers first,and our combination with Rite Aid will enableus to even better serve the valuable pharmacycustomer by providing a fully integrated one-stop shop for our customers’ food, health andwellness needs,” Bob Miller, Albertsons’ chairmanand CEO, said at the time of the announcement.

Expanding Categories Is Essential to SuccessAccording to the recent health and wellness retail driv-ers report Next-Practices for Redefining Category Roles& Strategies from Global Market Development Center(GMDC), supporting consumers’ health and wellnessgoals by providing in-store expert advice and authenticshopping experiences is “a top opportunity for industrytransformation.”The online competition brick-and-mortar retailers facemakes that transformation essential. “Ninety-five percentof all products sold on Amazon consist of nonfood mer-chandise, which largely comprise the highest profit marginitems in stores,” the report says. “With local retailers expe-riencing these losses directly in volume and profit, GMDCpredicts some merchandise categories will completelyleave physical retail by 2025.”Carrying a broad selection of health and wellness prod-ucts is the prescription experts say can help revive businessat brick-and-mortar stores.

“The hard truth is that for many retail channels, trafficand trips are declining,” says Mark Mechelse, VP of insightsand communications for GMDC. “The brick-and-mortarchoice often wins by default when it comes to health andwellness shopping; however, long term, there are limitedreasons for shoppers to stay loyal unless new engagementmethods are activated.”The key, Mechelse says, is conversion.

Afew years ago, shopping for meat, milk and high- end makeup at the same location would have seemed a pretty unlikely possibility. Not today. Supermarkets nationwide are amping up their health and wellness offerings, moving beyond healthy foods and into natural beauty and per- sonal care products, nutritional supplements, over-the-counter (OTC) medicines and more. Consider Exhibit A: The Jan. 13, 2018, installment of Whole Foods Market’s “Be Good to Your Whole
Body” podcast series, shot in the company’s new store

Brick-and-MortarGets a Face-LiftRetailers can benefit by expanding health and wellness lines.